Seems we are nearing the end of the post production stage I thought an evaluation of how it went would be appropriate. I felt we worked extremely well together and feel that this shows in the work we have produced. To start the process Gaz created a template session to start of the process. This was a mixture of dialogue, spot, foley and music sections each having particular characters/scene tracks and all going to separate subs and then to master subs. This was very useful when it came to pulling in the location audio and when it came to the mix down process. I felt this was definitely an effective way of working.
During the process we did a lot of foley, which we have all got quite good at through this process. We now know exactly what it takes to make the sounds we are after. Sometimes this included using recordings taken from our time on location and sometimes we had to go out and get sounds we couldn’t achieve in the foley room. We all took it in turns taking part in foley and recording. This was also the case when it came to editing; we all edited our fair share of atmosphere sounds, footsteps, birds, cars, crying (there is a lot of crying in this film). One of my particular favourite parts of post production was creating the woods dream scene. This gave us a chance to really experiment with sound as it was a dream. A favourite aspect of mine was what Gaz achieved with the alarm clock sound coming into consciousness as George woke up. As we went along we balanced the sounds together such as atmosphere sounds making sure they all fitted together, this made the mix down process simpler.
When it came to the mix down process Gaz took the lead and did a very good job. He balanced everything up to BBC broadcast standards whilst checking for any panning and phase issues. I have to admit I do not know a lot about phase issues when it comes to mixing down, however this is where our teamwork payed of. I learnt a lot from what Gaz was doing and now feel with a little bit of research for my next project this is something I could do well. By the end of the process it felt like routine, each taking turns in editing and mixing (we also pretty much lived in the sound theatre for about a month). For the final mix down we have done a final mix which we will all go and listen to through different mediums and then alter anything we feel is necessary. This is to try and ensure we haven’t missed anything and that the levels are all balanced to there best standard throughout the film. Also to make sure there is no vast changes in levels through scenes. All in all I feel that the post sound process has gone really well and we have worked as an effective team whilst learning from each over.
As we are near completing this project it has reached the point of which the music is finished and in it’s final place of the film. Therefore I thought it would be good to evaluate the music as a whole. What I have learnt about the role of music supervisor/composer during my research is that both have a strong relationship with the director. Due to the way this project has turned out it has been difficult to create that. However I have attempted to achieve this through periodic meetings about the music; within these meeting I would show the director(s) the progress of the music, ask for there opinions, discuss further ideas with the music and make sure they were happy and agreed with all my decisions. Unfortunately I wasn’t given a lot of guidance with the music apart from the second director preferring the music to be more simplistic and liking the lone piano. However this did give me free rein to do as I wished. The main challenge was keeping it “simplistic” whilst trying to add extra layers to it. The reason I wanted to add extra layers to the piano was because I felt the piece’s were rather empty without and didn’t give the film a lot of progression with the piano alone.
So as stated previously the film music splits up into five different categories. The first of which is the title sequence music. This lays down the key and feel of the rest of the music through out the film. It introduces the main themes which are the two piano chords (to symbolise George) and the arpeggios, which appear at the beginning and end of the film, as a main theme tune. The piano is combined with a xylophone sound to add a counter melody. This gives the piece more texture and makes the melodies stand out more. There is also another layer which is a bass synth. This attempts to give the piece more body and pad it out. This is partly because I thought the music was still lacking something, but it also acts as an underlying sound which appears to signify Georges regrets in the conclusion piece of music. Both are meant to be very subtle as I didn’t want to take away from the piano or the melodies the piano is creating. You may also notice that in the film the music is layered with some echoed sounds of children; this is meant to hint at George’s son Sam who is a key focus to the film. These children sounds are layered throughout the film and are meant to be a subtle signifier of George’s pain when it comes to his relationship with his son.
The second piece is the ‘Travel song’, this was a piece of music I created to go along to some still shots of scenery or when George is travelling. Originally this piece was meant to be longer however because of the way the shots turned out it is fairly short. However I still think it fits nicely as a transition piece. This piece contain just a constant rhythm whilst a new melody comes over the top.
The third is the radio song which we recorded a cover of ‘One more Kiss, Dear’ by Vangelis. The direction given from the director was that she wanted an older sounding song to symbolise Georges love for his wife. For this we had to have discussions with PRS and pull our own resources to create a cover that was as close to the original as possible. We chose this specific song as we felt the lyrics were particularly relevant to the storyline which is progressing in the film. This scene is meant to signify George’s past relationship with his wife who is now dead – which evokes George to being upset. We intensified this by automating the EQ with the change in shots to try and show the song taking over George’s emotion.
The fourth pieces of music are only short pieces which occur in the dreams. These are mainly there to give the effect that George is dreaming. They are the simple piano notes which are washed in reverb and delay to make them sound different to the other music. This is an attempt to make sure the viewer realises that George is in a dream and also to intensify it and blend with the other sounds in the dream scenes.
The fifth and final piece is about 4 minutes long and continues through to the end of the credits. This is meant to show the change of emotions George is going through and then reverts back to the original arpeggio that is in the introduction piece. This is similar to the introduction in that it has the two additional layers of MIDI. These are added to attempt to give the music more of a dynamic range – to rise and fall with the film itself. It then proceeds into the end credits which have element of all the piece of music as well as a new melody to symbolise a sort of closure to the film.
We weren’t told that there was a production Logo until the final cut of the visual. For this Rory created a sting that appears at the beginning and end of the film. This was something we were given no guidance on. I think what Rory created fitted the visual perfectly and really enhanced the Logo itself.
I did find it difficult to start composing for the film until I saw the rough edits of the visuals. It then became clear where I wanted to go with it. I feel like I have learnt a lot about my preferred methods to composing music and it would be really interesting in having the role of music supervisor in a different film. Some of the main difficulties I came across during this process is that I wasn’t told how long the title scene or the end credit’s would be until I got the final cut of the visuals. This meant I had a short amount of time to finish of the already existing music and then add to the composition where needed (which with the end credits was 1 minute and a half extra music and a day to do it in). However because we had a little longer to do our final mix I was able to complete all the layers to the music I wanted. Another issue I came across was adding the extra layers of MIDI. At first I struggled to come up with ideas and had a significant mental block. However I have now learnt when that happens it is best to leave it and come back to it in after a couple of hours/day, this meant I was being much more productive. Overall I am happy with how the music has turned out. I feel that I played close attention to any comments the clients had and really tried to get them interested and discuss what they wanted from the music. I felt I created a score which hinted at who George was at a character and also made the audience feel something for him at the end of the piece.
For this project we asked the director (Charlotte Hughes) of the film to write a review of each sound role : Music Supervisor, Location Supervisor and Supervising Sound Editor. This is to enable us to evaluate our progress and see any areas we could have improved our client based project.
Here is the director’s evaluation on my role as Music Supervisor:
“Alice’s skills as a composer impressed us greatly. The score she has created was perfect and met the vision we had for the film, which seemed like a tall task given the lack of support she had from the previous director. She always welcomed feedback and was happy to make any changes e.g. a request from us to make the music simpler to reflect the rest of the narrative. Overall, Alice adhered to everything we wanted as a production group and we were very happy with the end result.”
This feedback will help me evaluate my performance in my reflective summary of the project.
After composing, recording and placing the basic pieces of music for the film on piano we had always planned to add extra layer. However the new director changed the approach to the music (after hearing the temp music) and felt a simpler style of music was more sufficient for the film and enjoyed the piano of sadness quite a lot. Through meeting with the director we agreed that it could still do with an extra layer of another instrument just to add a bit of texture to the pieces. Therefore I went ahead and created some extra sounds to layer up with the piano through Pro Tools MIDI instruments.
The first was a bassy electronic instrument which I put in to make the introduction piece more powerful. This was still extremely subtle in the mix and could go unnoticed.
The second MIDI instrument is still very subtle but acts as a counter melody to the piano. This is a xylophone type instrument, and attempts to just add a different timbre to the piece.
These two combined give the piano a lot more texture without taking away from the effect the piano has. It is still simple yet seems a lot fuller and finished.
For 35 seconds of our film there is a music track which needed to be a piece of music well known and could act as a signifier for George’s young love with his wife. For this we chose to do a cover of a track we liked and was agreed by the Director. This track was Vangelis’s ‘One More Kiss, Dear’, which originates from the film Bladerunner. After researching with PRS as you can see here, we went on to make a cover of the track. We recorded and played this track ourselves. I worked out the key and chord pattern’s of the song by ear then proceeded by adding a bass guitar, vocals and some improvised piano parts over the top. For recording the vocals themselves, we wanted to get them as close to the sound we wanted as possible. We did this through using a ribbon microphone and an old broadcast microphone. This created a really warm sounding vocal, this made life easier when mixing the track to make it sound like the original – and like it was coming through a radio.
For the scene itself we have automated the EQ for when the shot is focused on his face to make the music feel like it’s taking over, and intensifies as the character begins to show his sadness.
We wanted this piece to sound as good as possible which I felt we achieved in the timescale we did it in. The reason we decided to create a cover rather than compose a track was because it is one of the biggest signifiers of the relationship George had between his wife and had always been a pinnacle point within the script.
